


Choreography

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Dad figure hidgens, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 11:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20975348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Hidgens tries to teach Emma the choreography in his musical but they both thing it’s for the others benefit, which causes more trouble than either of them would like





	Choreography

**Author's Note:**

> So forget promptober uuuu my exams came very fast and punched me in the face

“Emma, hand needs to go up higher,” Hidgens gestured with his own, straightening his posture again.

“My hand is up,” Emma stretched out the tips of her fingers. She could feel the pulling in her joints as she forced her hand up a little further.

“Well it doesn’t look right,” he dropped his stance to examine her own. “And you need to point your feet more.”

Emma playfully rolled her eyes. “You’re serious about this choreography business huh?” She adjusted her stance but couldn’t quite point her leg out far enough without risking her balance. 

“Further, Emma,” he held her shoulders, guiding her leg with his foot. “No, you just aren’t doing it right.”

“Jeez,” Emma slouched over and rubbed her forehead with a surprised laugh. “No mercy huh?” This was a far stretch from the regular praise he gave her.

“Well it has to be...” he made a gesture with his hands as he looked for the words, “perfect! It’s my musical, after all. It’s my pride and joy, Emma.”

“Hah,” Emma laughed a little uncomfortably, assuming hopefully that she had to at least be up there somewhere on his ‘pride and joy’ list.

She stretched out into position again, shifting very slowly until whatever she was doing was satisfactory enough for him. “Better?” She didn’t want to let him down when he was so passionate about it. 

“It’ll do for now, but we have to work on it,” he gave her a skeptical look. 

“I’m just not as tall as you,” she reminded him, stretching her hand as high above her head as she could to prove her point. She bit back a tiny hiss of pain as she stretched out her bad leg. 

Hidgens stood beside her, getting into the proper posture. “Watch closely, follow me.” He took two long strides forward, doing something with his hands Emma couldn’t quite replicate while she had to focus on her balance. 

She skipped the intricacy of his leg work in favour of trying to cover the same distance but he turned around snapped at her. “No, Emma!”

Emma held up her hands in defence. “Hidgens, you’re taking this a little seriously don’t you think? This is like, only my second rehearsal,” she tried to defend herself. This was probably the only time he had raised his voice at her.

“Well good god Emma. If you want to be in the musical you have to meet a certain quality! This is going to be the best musical in town, even ever, maybe! Emma, don’t you understand? Come on, let’s go. From the top.”

“Ugh,” Emma trudged back to the other side of the room from her starting point. This musical was his passion, it was just about all he cared about these days. She knew how important it was to him so she never blamed him for the attitudes he had been taking with her during their short practices together. 

“Come on, one, two, three, go!” He clapped his hands once and Emma started off on her routine. 

She had been the star of the show in his eyes originally. She had picked up on the choreography very, very quickly but now it was a matter of why she couldn’t stretch long enough or raise herself high enough. 

“Other way!” He quickly corrected her as she spun in the wrong direction. “No, look. We need to work on that spin Emma. Copy me.” 

Emma grimaced. She hated the spin. It put far too much weight on her bad leg for her to be comfortable practicing it. 

“Like this!” He raised himself up on the tip of his toe in a very graceful pirouette-esque twirl. 

Emma raised up onto the tips of her toes and took a second to steady herself, completing the spin rather messily. 

“Better. But try this.” He let her steady herself by grabbing onto his shoulders before taking her hands to place them in the right position. “And do that for me again Emma.”

Emma felt a bit like a show dog at this point but he still wasn’t satisfied. 

“Just once more.”

Emma groaned to herself, patting her thigh just to see how much it was aching. “Professor, I don’t really think I can make the spin properly. I can’t really balance on my bad leg like that.” 

“No, nonsense Emma! You did it so perfectly the first day! I believe in you, come on. Just give me one more spin.” 

Emma winced at how sure he was. Going against the aching in her thigh in an attempt to please him, she took in a deep breath in preparation to do it all over again.

“Okay,” she sighed, but as she raised herself up on her bad leg again she felt a stabbing pain course through her thigh. “Ah! Ah! Oh fuck!” She quickly came down from the tip of her toe but the pain did not stave off so she continued to the ground, taking all pressure off her leg. “Ah shit!”

“What? What’s wrong?” His eyes widened and darted around the room in search of some imaginary perpetrator before swiftly dropping to his knees besides her. 

“Shit! I don’t know, it just fucking like-! Hurts!” She hovered a hand over her thigh, frightened to touch it. She struggled to even out her rapid breathing, she was more in shock than pain, and her breath winded into a pained moan. 

“Okay, okay! Don’t panic dear. Let me see, don’t squirm.” He quickly unravelled her bandages, allowing her to squeeze his hand as he gently prodded at her scar. 

“Shit! What are you doing!?” She bit down on her tongue. 

“Oh dear. Your stitches are loose. Are you alright? Oh no.”

“I’m alright it just hurts like a bitch! Ouch! Can we fix it?” She presses her feet against the floor and balled up her hands, her face screwing up in uncomfortable pain. 

“Oh I’m sorry dear, of course we can. I have steri-strips in my first aid kid. You wait here and just hold on okay?” He took off in a hurry for his study. 

Emma was getting a very bad sense of déjà vu. She tried to still the pain in her thigh but every time she touched it or moved the pain bit back.

“Here we are, here we are dear, are you okay?” Hidgens returned as fast as he had left, peeling open the packet. 

“Yeah, ugh I’m fine. I won’t die or anything,” she joked, clicking her tongue. 

“Of course not. Hold still.” 

She gripped one hand tightly onto his shoulder and yelped as he applied it, but it was all over in seconds. 

She stayed on the floor, resigned, waiting for Hidgens to tell her to try again. 

“How silly of me,” he played anxiously with his hair. “I don’t know why I didn’t listen to you.” He was wearing a big frown.

“No, no it’s good! It’s not that bad. I can try that spin again now that my leg is better.” She had to shift onto her knees before she could get to her feet. 

“Oh, Emma,” Hidgens held out a hand to have her pause. “No, it’s okay. You can’t do the spin. That’s fine, dear.”

“I can do the spin,” she promised. “I did it right the first day. I can do it, you saw.” 

Hidgens placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her rising on the tips of her toes again. “Dear. It’s not that you can’t do the spin, it’s that you don’t have to.” 

She whined quietly. “I can do it though, you know.”

“I trust you on that,” he nodded, trying to maintain eye contact with her as her eyes darted around the room. “How’s your leg? Is that better now?”

“Yeah. I barely feel it,” she reported, rocking back and forth on her heels. “How about we work on something different for you then?” 

“Hah,” Hidgens snorted, letting go of her to pace pointlessly around the room. “Oh Emma. I hope you don’t think I’m forcing you into this! I just thought it was something we could maybe enjoy together. You used to love acting.”

Emma trotted after him to follow him as he walked, even if he was only heading to the other side of the room. “I do! I love it, man. I love your musical too, I can tell how passionate you are about it.”

He nodded, a slight smile on his features. “Well yes, I do love it very much Emma dear.”

“And it’s your pride and joy?” She continued for him, huffing as he picked up his pace, leaving the studio to pace around the rest of his house.

“It’s close to my heart, yes. I’ve been working on it for years.”

She wanted to ask him why he was walking so fast. “I’m sorry I can’t do the spin right now, Professor.”

“Oh...” he trailed off and she was certain it was because she let him down. “No, dear. Don’t worry about it. We can always try again tomorrow can’t we?”

She reached out to grab his arm, not wanting to push herself too hard after the stitches incident. “Hidgens,” she held on until he had to turn around. “I know how much this means to you. I can tell you’re disappointed and I’m sorry, man. My leg isn’t what it should be like and I kinda let you down back there. I didn’t think it’d upset you that much.” 

She felt horrified as she watched a new expression form on his face. One she couldn’t quite read in his wide eyes or the quiver of his lip. It looked like he was about to yell and cry at the same time and it made her blood run cold. 

“Professor?” She has to remind him he was yet to respond to her. 

His shoulders raised as if he was expecting an attack and his jaw slowly fell open as the cogs turned in his brain. 

Emma withdrew her hand from his arm as to not anger him any further. “Hey?” She was worried at this point. If his musical was close enough to make him snappy, she wasn’t sure what must’ve been going through his head when she couldn’t complete his choreography. 

“It’s my mistake,” Hidgens finally uttered, the rest of his sentence still forming in his head and leaving Emma on a very odd note. “It’s the choreography,” he added, gesticulating at something else. “Oh dear,” he clapped a hand to his forehead.

Emma recognised pretty well that he was at a loss for words. It was a bit of a relief, it meant that until Hidgens got past that block she couldn’t technically be yelled at. She gave him a supportive pat on the back while he scrunched up his face to consider things. 

“You don’t-? Urgh, Emma, you don’t think you have to do this do you? You aren’t doing this just to please me are you?” 

“No!” Emma shook her head frantically. “Oh, no man, I’m just as passionate, I promise. I already know all my lines and shit, it’s just the choreography. I’m into it, I swear!” She jerked herself back.

“Ah, no.” He bit down on his thumb nail. “Oh no, sweet heart. You don’t think this musical is more important to me than you are I’m sure?” His voice strained into a whine and his eyes were set on her.

Emma’s own eyes widened, tell-tale whites showing off her obvious surprise, and now she was at a loss for words. “It’s important to you!” Before she could even get her sentence out Hidgens had jumped in to talk over her. 

“You are like a daughter to me, Emma! I don’t want you to worry about living up to it!”

“But I am! I can’t do that stupid spin Hidgens!” Now that it was out in the open there was no use holding it back. The words came from her mouth faster than she could make the effort to bottle them up. “And you said it’s your pride and joy and that I just couldn’t do it right and that’s gotta mean something isn’t it? You looked so upset!” 

“Not upset at you! Emma!” He put his hands on her upper arms to convince her. “Emma, I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at myself. You told me you weren’t sure and I didn’t listen and you hurt yourself. I was so worried you felt that way and I’m only upset to find out you do!” 

Emma couldn’t cope with the ferocity of his look and glanced down as if she was still the one at fault. “Don’t get mad, Hidgens. You weren’t being unfair I just couldn’t-“ she shrugged. “Maybe that spin isn’t for me, huh?” She gave him a hopeful look. 

“I know you’re capable of it, but how about we change that around anyways then?” He let out a reliever sigh. The problem wasn’t resolved, but there was comfort knowing it was being addressed. “I’m glad we didn’t let that go unchecked any further than today, dear.”

“Me too,” she pushed herself onto him to give him a hug around the chest. “I would be flunking all my tests from sheer stress if I thought you were disappointed with me.” 

Hidgens patted her back, shaking his head. “You can’t ever disappoint me, my dearest. Not at all.”

“You’re my best friend, Hidgens,” she told him. 

He chuckled in his deep voice and she could feel the rumble in his chest. “Well I love you too, Emma dear.” He allowed her to separate from the hug. “I’ll make some changes to the choreography for you. Let’s make rehearsal tomorrow better, okay?”

**Author's Note:**

> This was based a bit off the prompt but also I did a sketch for this fic on my dummy starkid art account and have loved the concept ever since fjshfh I’m clown


End file.
